


Akko Kagari and the School of Magic

by TheDameintheRaininMaine



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Little Witch Academia
Genre: Crossover, F/F, Gen, akko's still very much herself, set five years post deathly hallows, very much post war
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-07-04 22:17:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15850509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDameintheRaininMaine/pseuds/TheDameintheRaininMaine
Summary: Akko Kagari always longed to be special. When she receives her acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she's over the moon and dying to explore the whole new world ahead of her. But she may discover her new life to not be the fairy tale she hoped.





	1. Chapter 1

Akko Kagari would have very much resented being told she was an ordinary girl. True, she lived a very ordinary life with her parents in a very ordinary suburb of London. She was not especially good at school or at sports. She was also quite ordinary looking, rather short with brown hair. The only thing truly remarkable about her appearance was her eyes, which were an odd shade that looked almost red at times. 

She fought this fate with every fiber of her being. Ever since she was little all she wanted was to be special, to be able to make people smile. Though she showed no sign of being especially talented, she pushed hard and hoped to someday be a performer. Dancing, singing, acting, she tried them all, and still hoped one day to be able to shine like a star. 

To say she was ecstatic the day Headmistress McGonagall appeared out of thin air and gave her the letter that told her and her parents that she was a witch and had been accepted at Hogwarts would be an understatement. 

“You’ll have to excuse me, my wife and I are both immigrants to the UK, so we might not understand…” Mr Kagari started, sounding overwhelmed. 

“There is much more to be explained in time,” The Scottish woman assured him. She was tall and dignified and really didn’t look anything like a witch ought in Akko’s mind, but her tone was very reassuring. “There have been many changes to the school in recent years, and as with many Muggle-born children, we feel a bit of extra guidance to be prudent.”

Akko heard practically none of this conversation, as she was too busy dancing about the house, occasionally stopping to re-read the letter in disbelief, often followed by clutching it to her chest. Magic, was real, and she was going to learn it.

She had her book list memorized by that night, and went over each title at least a dozen times a day in disbelief. When she recited them back on their trip into the city to get her supplies, Mrs. Kagari commented that if Akko put that much effort into her actual studies at Hogwarts she should end up being a top student. 

Professor McGonagall hold told the family that she would be sending a teacher from the school. When they got off the train in London they were greeted by a tall woman with short gray hair who introduced herself as Madam Hooch. 

“What do you teach?” Akko asked eagerly. 

“Flying class, and I’m the Quidditch coach as well.”

Akko’s brain skips over the word she doesn’t recognize.

“Flying? Like on a broom flying? Or do you sprout wings like a bird? Is it like floating?” Akko rambles on. Thankfully, Hooch seems happy enough to discuss the details of her career, which they do as the group continue into the Leaky Cauldron and Akko was temporarily transported. 

She had never been in a place like this before. Neither of her parents were drinkers and the only pub in their very boring suburb was nothing like this- what little she had seen of it at all. It shouldn’t really be anything shocking, just a few people sipping from glasses quietly in a small room, but it’s still something new. But this novelty is moved past when Hooch pulls out her wand and begins tapping on the brick. Akko is bouncing, almost unable to contain herself when the wall separates. Magic. 

Akko does her best to not run as they enter Diagon Alley. It turns out to be a good choice, as the cobblestones surprise and threaten to trip her as she gambols through the opening into the street. She tilts her head back and attempts to take it all in. The sights- all the people, the buildings that are standing even though it doesn’t look like they should be able to. The sounds, both normal and foreign (there’s a far more variety of bird calls than she’s used to), the smells (Akko KNOWS she smells ice cream somewhere and she’s going to make sure to find it!). Even the boring activity of them stopping first at the bank (Gringott’s?) to exchange money manages to enrapture her when she realizes that the man behind the desk isn’t human. 

Continuing down the whole street, things that should normally bore Akko don’t. Books (on charms and potions!), a cauldron (she really felt she ought ask what makes it different from a cooking pot) even the tedious measuring for her wand (she’s very happy to have unicorn hair, she had gagged at the phrase “dragon heartstring”) all excite her and she finds she has more and more questions for everyone she meets. 

There’s a pause when they pass the office of the Daily Prophet. Akko’s mother has daily subscriptions to a number of newspapers and she expresses interest in adding this one to her list. 

“It’s going to be strange enough sending my only child to a boarding school that’s part of a whole other world. I would very much like to keep up with what’s going on there”. 

“I think that can be arranged, though I would caution you to take the news as reported in with a grain of salt. Come with me” Hooch gestures them into the office, and Akko decides to move on down the street by herself. The next shop is Madam Malkins, and she decides she might as well get her uniform.

While the plain black robes are very far from her usual style, Akko is still giddy trying them on. When she’s sitting in the lobby waiting for her parents to return to pay, she notices another girl about her age waiting. She’s pretty, with light blond hair and aristocratic features, but she looks like she hasn’t smiled in years. 

But Akko is nothing if not friendly. 

“Hi! I’m Atsuko Kagari! You can call me Akko, are you going to Hogwarts too?”

The girl turns, regarding her curiously, then extends her hand. 

“Diana Cavendish”

“Isn’t everything here super amazing? Before this I didn’t even know magic was real and now I get to go to witch school and carry a wand and fly a broom! Maybe there’ll even be some bad guys to fight out there!”

Akko isn’t emotionally sensitive enough to see the other girl stiffen. 

“Well I suppose I will see you there, Miss Kagari. I hope for your sake you understand a little more before then”. 

And she walks off on her own. Later on in her memory, Akko will realize that Diana was totally alone. 

After rejoining the others, the last stop of the day ends up being the Magical Menagerie. After reading the list of allowed familiars, Akko had begged her parents that she, after several years hinting, be allowed to have a kitten. 

“And it’ll live at Hogwarts with me! You won’t even have to clean the litter box!”. 

Much of what is inside is moving, but thankfully Akko is immediately taken by a small black kitten who comes up and rubs against her leg. Akko scoops him up in her hands. 

“You look just right! I think I’ll name you Jiji, just like that witch’s cat in the movie”. 

Standing in line behind her is a girl with red hair and glasses clutching a bag of owl treats. Jiji leaps out of Akko’s hands and knocks them out of her hands. 

“Oh I’m sorry! I guess he doesn’t like being cuddled too much,” Akko apologizes, helping her scoop up the treats. 

“It’s okay,” the other girl replies, righting the glasses on her face. “I’m Lotte Yanson by the way, are you new at Hogwarts too?”

“Yes!” Akko actually tries to restrain herself this time, “Isn’t it so exciting!”. 

Lotte nods. “My family owns a little shop in the village near the campus. I see the castle every day, but I’ve never gotten to see inside it.”

Akko’s mom and Madam Hooch enter, and Akko turns back to Lotte. 

“I guess I should go, maybe I’ll see you on the first day.”

Akko pets Jiji on the head and leaves with the rest of the group. 

When they reach the train station, Hooch gives them the instructions on how to catch the train on September 1st. 

“There’s usually a pretty good group near the platform. It likely seems unusual to you, but every really does enter this way and it’s been years since we’ve even had to Obliviate any employees”. 

And with that, even with all her magical school supplies, it was almost as though Akko’s life had gone back to normal. 

She spent the rest of the summer convinced that the very next day she was going to wake up from this dream. That all of her books, her uniforms, the weird potion ingredients she had neatly packed into her trunk would disappear and she would be left with the boring slate skirt and blazer from the local comprehensive. 

But every day, the stack was still there. Akko glanced through some of them, but they were as densely written as her regular schoolbooks and she found them no more enlightening. Jiji was her constant companion, going with her to the park, the mall, with no complaints, and being far more obedient than she believed a regular cat would have been. And the closer it got to the end of the summer, the more the butterflies in her stomach threatened to take flight. Her parents had started somehow both clinging to her and holding her at arms length. It made it feel all the more real. 

Two days before she was set to leave for the train, Akko was in the living room on her father’s computer. She wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but soon a link caught her eye. The video file was labelled “shiny_chariot_flight_real.mmv” and she didn’t think anything of it when she opened it. It opened normally, and later she wouldn’t even remember what site she found it in, but she could recite the contents from heart. 

The scene set is of a young woman with short red hair. She’s smiling, and wearing a pointed hat like the one Akko had packed in her trunk, but in a bright blue hue. The rest of her outfit is white with spots of red and blue, but looks almost like a costume. 

And she’s flying on a broom and holding a wand. 

With a wink, she rises into the air, and the camera follows. She lifts her wand, and lets out a stream of blue fireworks that slowly form into the shape of a unicorn.

And then it ends. 

Akko’s stunned. She isn’t sure if it is the kind of real magic she’s supposed to be learning at Hogwarts or a trailer for a movie or something, but suddenly her desire to go and learn and become great is ignited in her belly. The file was titled “shiny chariot,” Was it her name? The name of a show or something? Search engines gave her no ideas either way. Until she found out otherwise, she was going to call her Shiny Chariot. 

She looked so happy. And watching her made Akko happy. If magic was going to do that for her, than it really would be the best thing in her life. It would be even more than she could hope for. 

Akko has only been to King’s Cross a few times in her life, and the hustle and bustle is a bit overwhelming even aside from her other thoughts when September 1 finally comes. She pulls her trunk along, Jiji sleep atop it in his cat carrier, eyes trailing carefully. 

Mr. Kagari stops, just about three quarters of the way between platforms three and four. Hw looks at the barrier, and then at Akko’s trunk, then back at the barrier. 

But true to Hooch’s comment, they aren’t alone. Before they can even think to ask a station agent what to do, another girl about Akko’s age comes along, with a long braid. She’s pushing a trunk with a bird cage on top, and munching on a candy bar. She doesn’t pay the Kagari’s any notice, but walks with an even pace towards the spot Mr. Kagari had noted in the barrier. 

And then just like that, she was gone. 

Akko stares, then turns and gestures to her parents. 

“Come on, worst case scenario we look like idiots.”

This thought melts away as they pass through the barrier and the bright red steam engine reading “Hogwarts Express” comes into view. This platform is just as busy as the regular one, and Akko bounces a bit to meet her other classmates. 

She hugs both her parents, and promises to write as soon as she gets settled in that night, and takes a deep breath before climbing onto the train. 

Akko takes her seat in the first compartment she finds that’s open. The other other person inside is a short girl with dark ponytails who’s fiddling with some kind of a machine. 

“Hi! I’m Akko!” the other girl gives no answer, but turns and nods her head in Akko’s direction. 

Akko’s still sitting, twiddling her thumbs as the train begins to move. She’s never been good at sitting still, even on public transit, and is itching to get up and move around but feels a bit uncertain. So she remains for the time, ignored by her companion. A quick squint at tag on the bag at the girls feet reveals her name is Constanze Amalie...some reaaaallly long string of last names Akko has no hope of pronouncing. 

Just when she’s once again debating whether to get up and go exploring, the door to the compartment opens and a tall girl with short red hair enters and flops down on the seat next to Akko. 

“I wish it wouldn’t take so long to get Arcterus settled”. 

“Arcterus?” Akko asks. 

“My owl. Well, my sister’s owl, but she graduated. He’s super high strung and takes forever to calm down when I have to stow him with the others.”

She stretches her arms out above her head, and if Akko didn’t already get the sense that this was a witch who was very sure of herself, this would do it. 

“You a first year too?”

Akko nods. 

“Atsuko Kagari,” she says, “But you can call me Akko”. 

“I’m Amanda O’Neill. Think you’ve figured out what house you’ll be in?”

“House?”

“Ah- a Muggleborn then?”

Akko turns red. McGonagall and Hooch had explained the term to her, and told her that it wasn’t an insult, but still- was it so obvious?

“They all have their good points- they’ve even started pushing the bullies and bigots from Slytherin- but I really hope I’m going to be in Gryffindor, just so I can be a part of their Quidditch team. I can’t believe they still don’t let first years have their own brooms.”

Akko nods. “I really can’t wait to learn to fly.”

“It’s the greatest,” Amanda says excitedly. She then proceeds to animatedly tell Akko about her jaunts on her sister’s broom in the countryside where her family lived. 

Akko is beginning to feel far more at ease, and when the train has been in motion maybe an hour, her stomach begins to audibly growl. 

“Uhh...do we have to wait until we get to school or is there anywhere to get food here?”

“There’s a trolley that comes around selling snacks. If you don’t want to wait, you can just go down the corridor and find her.”

With that impetus, Akko gets to her feet, taking a moment to find her legs underneath her, and leaves the compartment. 

She eventually finds the trolley most of the way down the corridor, but she takes some time to glance through the windows into other compartments. 

Some of the other students have already changed into their uniforms. Many still have their pets with them, while others have stowed them like Amanda. Akko spots the girl with the braid she’d followed through the barrier with a pile of sweets, clearly having already made the same trek Akko is. 

When she reaches her destination, the lady with the cart tells Akko to take her time. It’s a good thing, as snack selection is a very important task, and these treats are all new to her. There’s another girl inquiring if the woman has any mushrooms, but Akko does her best to ignore her. 

She returns on the way to the compartment with her selections. Pumpkin pasties were easy, Mrs Kagari sometimes fried pumpkin. Cauldron cakes seemed like a safe bet. And Akko’s adventurous soul couldn’t pass up something like Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. 

On her way back, she catches another glimpse inside another compartment and pauses. 

The girl from Diagon Alley- Diana?- is inside with two other girls. The other two are talking animatedly, but she’s ignoring them, reading a book. She still isn’t smiling. 

When she gets back to the compartment, Akko and Amanda make their way through her bag of Every Flavor Beans. Akko’s oddly fond of the cut grass and tuna fish flavored ones, but even she can’t handle the earwax. She tells Amanda about her parents, and her boring little town. 

“Going to Diagon Alley was pretty much the most exciting thing I’ve ever done. Even the weeks after I kept thinking things might turn out to be a dream until I found that video on the internet the other day.”

Amanda wrinkles her nose. 

“Video?”

Akko explains what she found the previous day. 

“Yeah, I kind of doubt that was real magic. Wizardry and modern muggle technology don’t really get along- I mean, I used it when I went to muggle primary school, and lots of other did too, but we don’t use it at Hogwarts, and most adults probably won’t even know what you’re talking about. I’ve certainly never heard of anyone videotaping their magic and putting it on the internet. It was probably just some muggles doing special effects or something.”

Akko ends up spending the rest of the ride deflated. Fake, she had sort of feared, but the way it had made her feel…. 

Amanda must have noticed how quiet she was being. 

“Got butterflies? It’s okay, lots of people do when they’re new. We’re practically there”. 

Soon the train screeches to a halt, and all the compartment doors open. Akko, Amanda and Constanze join the rest of the black robed, pointed hat wearing crowd. Eventually, they hear a voice coming from a very large man with a beard calling out for the other first years. 

Amanda grabs onto her. 

“Come on! First years get to row across the lake!”. 

Akko would admit to being totally uncomfortable in watercraft, and honestly not even a competent swimmer, so she let Amanda go ahead and get into a boat with two other girls ahead of her. 

She’s still attempting to psyche herself up and get in the boat when she feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns to see the ginger girl she met in the Menagerie, dressed in her uniform. 

“Lotte!” Akko says excitedly, finally getting into the boat with the other girl by her side. “I didn’t see you on the train!”

“My family owns a shop in Hogsmeade, the village down there,” Lotte says, pointing. “So it didn’t make sense to have to go all the way to London.”

The two of them gaze up at the castle, in the early moonlight, as they approach from across the lake. 

“There’s no way to beat this entrance though,” she says to Akko’s gaping mouth, “It always takes your breath away”. 

Akko had managed to process the word “castle” in the previous months, but the reality is so much...more. The entrance that the tall man leads the whole group of first years through is bigger than the entire front of the Kagari’s house, and far grander than nearly anything Akko has seen in her life. 

When Headmistress McGonagall appears and starts to tell them important, practical things about the ceremony and the coming school year. Akko is still being taken by everything around her; the huge hall, the live paintings, the sudden appearance of ghosts (real live ghosts!). When the group finally enters the Great Hall, Akko sandwiched between Lotte and Amanda, she had managed to someone digest the words “sorting ceremony”, but still lets out an undignified yelp when the hat on the stool starts singing. 

The headmistress already has the list of names out and begins calling them when Akko is trying to wrap her brain around what the hat had sung.

“Antoneko, Jasminka”

The girl with the long braid sits up on the stool and puts on the hat. After a moment it declares, 

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

There’s applause and the line continues. Hufflepuff, that had been something about fairness and loyalty, and that seemed good right?

“Cavendish, Diana”

The blonde girl approaches the stool with poise. There’s some whispering when she does, but she pays it no mind. The hat is silent a moment before declaring, 

“RAVENCLAW”. 

That seemed accurate. 

“Creme, Annabel!”

“SLYTHERIN”

There’s two girls at the table Annabel approaches who look strangely like Diana, but look...much meaner somehow. They’re applause continues when, “England, Hannah”, one of the other girls in Diana’s compartment earlier, also joins the table. 

“Jansson, Lotte”

Lotte squeaks as she approaches the stool. Soon after, the hat declares, 

“HUFFLEPUFF” 

Akko’s getting butterflies as her turn comes, and at the sound of “Kagari, Atsuko”, she approaches at an almost nervous trot and places the hat on her head. 

She hears a soft laugh inside her head. 

“Couldn’t have it any other way, has to be ….”

“GRYFFINDOR” 

She joins the table, still a touch apprehensive. She’s already managed to be separated from the few people she’s met and is suddenly alone again. 

“Manbavaran, Sucy”

“GRYFFINDOR”

Akko is joined by the strange girl she saw by the snack trolley. She doesn’t say a word. 

The list continues on, and when they call “O’Neil, Amanda”, Akko holds her breath. 

“GRYFFINDOR”

Akko lets out her breath as a sigh as Amanda joins her. Finally, someone she knew. 

The ceremony continues as Akko’s butterflies turn rabid when her hunger starts to rise. Amanda had mentioned a feast and she hoped it hurried. 

By the time the last student (Constanze, who by the time she is sorted McGonagall seems almost too tired to bother with her full name) is sorted into Ravenclaw, Akko is famished and feels like she can barely hold on through McGonagall’s speech. 

“This year marks the fifth since the dark times of the second war. Parts of campus are still scarred by the battle that took place here, and many of the minds of our students and teachers are as well. But we as a school remain strong, and persevere. I send this message to those just joining us. Remember the past, and learn from it, but don’t let it turn you away from the future.” 

Even the sudden appearance of the greatest spread of food Akko has ever seen can’t fully distract her now. 

“War? Battle?” she asks Amanda, who is currently preoccupied with a large piece of shepherd’s pie. 

The ghost, who has suddenly appeared at the end of the table sighs. 

“It seems every year there is more and more that muggle born children must learn in order to fit in here.”

Amanda shrugs while taking a bite. The shrug looks offhand, but the mildly alarmed look in her eye speaks otherwise. 

“It’s...really a long story. I only really know part of it too, I was so young. I’m sure there’s someone better out there to explain it to you than me”. 

With that on her mind, Akko tries to enjoy the feast. She joins the others as they are lead to bed. 

Part of her doubts she’ll be able to remember the password to get into the common room. Might want to make sure she sticks with someone else this year. 

When they head up the stairs to the dorms, she notices the walls have portraits on them. They’re moving, like all the portraits here seem to, but they’re of woman of varying ages. One doesn’t even look old enough to be out of school yet. Looking at them, and remembering what she was thinking about earlier is sending Akko’s mind uncomfortable places. 

So she focuses on getting into her pajamas and wishing Amanda and the others a good night and crawling into her ridiculously huge and plush bed and trying to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Akko’s first week at Hogwarts was, to put it bluntly, a disaster. 

It would have been just one thing if she hadn’t already managed to get on Filch’s bad side by stepping on Mrs. Norris’s tail. 

It would have been just one thing if she didn’t constantly get stuck outside the common room having forgotten the password. 

It would have been just one thing if the moving staircases, disappearing steps and trick doors didn’t keep resulting in her injuring herself. Madam Pomfrey already knew her name and tut tutted when she saw her coming with another scrape or sprain. 

But classes....

Akko was not a good student, even in the muggle world. She frequently forgot to do her homework, dozed off in class and when called upon in to answer a question, generally felt her mind go completely blank. She isn’t really sure why she thought magic school would be any different. 

Charms, her very first class, had gone reasonably well. Even though she didn’t remember everything Flitwick had said, she definitely remembered watching him wave his wand and the previously set up brooms, dustpans, mops and buckets come to life and clear the classroom around the students. They hadn’t done anything practical to be sure, but it still gave a good first impression. 

She remembered absolutely nothing from History of Magic. In fact, she was quite sure she dozed off.

Transfiguration had been a different story. Anne Finnelan was a new professor according to Amanda, and she clearly felt she had something to prove. Akko had stumbled in two minutes late, already earning the woman’s ire, and nothing in class improved the first impression. The whole “transform the desk into a pig” thing had got her attention but by the end of class the rest of the group had pages of notes and Akko barely remembered a thing.

And as for potions…

Professor Slughorn had honestly seemed nice enough, if a little overly concerned with people’s families. Potions was a double period with the Ravenclaws, and he had spend a solid five minutes dragging the names of her aunts and uncles out of Diana. Akko saw her face flicker this time, the stony faced girl suddenly and briefly wearing an expression of rage. Whatever discomfort his interrogations had caused the others, would soon be forgotten.

The first lesson had been a potion for the treatment of “pimples, boils and among the most stubborn forms of acne”, which Slughorn informed them. “Would likely avoid them some embarrassment in the coming years”. Brewing it had seemed easy. Crush ingredient, mix, add another. Soon the mixture was a soft blue with the proper pink smoke that Slughorn had said there would be. 

Then Akko got a little overeager adding the last ingredient as Amanda was lifting the cauldron from the flame. 

She heard a voice from the bench behind them, going “Wait! No!” before the mixture exploded. 

She realized the voice must have come from Diana after the furor died down. Thankfully, it turned out the potion her and Hannah had been brewing worked perfectly to remove the enormous pustules that now covered both her and Amanda. Slughorn praised the other girls’ efforts before class let out. Akko saw Diana out of the corner of her eye shaking her head, and felt her cheeks blush bright. 

“We’re never going to live that down are we?”

Amanda shrugs, “I’m sure someone else will do something more embarrassing eventually that will distract attention from us.”

Wednesday night, Akko gets a bit of a reprieve. Her first Astronomy lesson provides no opportunities for humiliating herself. She climbs the tower with the other Gryffindors. Professor Sinistra, and her assistant, who she introduces as Professor Callistis, a tall woman with glasses and blue-black hair, pass out star charts and explain the very practical, non-magical nature of the study. Akko actually remembers a few bit of astronomy from muggle school even, and she leaves for their late bedtime feeling like she might actually have a brain after all. 

The last class of the week is Defense Against the Dark Arts, another double period, this time with the Hufflepuffs. Akko is apprehensive. Defense against anything is not necessarily a skill she has developed, but is reassured when Lotte waves her and Amanda over and they take their seats. 

“So what do we know about this professor?” Akko asks, nervous about the possibility of facing another Finnelan. 

Lotte shakes her head. 

“It’s someone new, it always is. No one’s been able to keep the post more than a year in ages. “

“Some people says it’s cursed.”

Akko jumps. The voice came from the row behind them. Sucy. She had been doing her best to ignore the other girl, who frankly kind of gave her the creeps. 

The door closes to the classroom, and a figure walks to the front. All the students lean forward curious. The woman who stands in front of them wears a long cape, a shirt and pants instead of robes, and no hat. Her short hair, in an improbable shade of purple is clearly visible. 

“Not a traditionalist, clearly.” Amanda notes, sounding admiring. 

“Hello, “ she starts. Her voice is confident, cool, like a stage actress’. “I am Professor Croix Meridies, I will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year. You may dispense with formalities and call me Croix if you wish”. 

She takes a step forward, standing in front of her desk, with one hand resting on it and the other holding her wand. The pose would seen almost practiced, but Croix exudes an air of effortlessness. 

“You may have come into this class with expectations. Fighting off curses and evil creatures. And yes, I will do my best to teach you these things. But there’s far more to protecting yourselves and others than magic. And I will do my best to each you these things too.”

The rest of the lesson is just an overview of the curriculum, and Akko finds herself barely paying attention. 

When they rise to leave, Croix announces.

“Kagari, Manbavaran,” and a few other names Akko doesn’t recognize, Hufflepuffs maybe, “Stay back for a few.”

Confused, Akko nods to Amanda and Lotte and joins the others at the front of the classroom. 

The professor slides onto the edge of her desk in a seated position, resting her arms on her knees. 

“Can any of you figure out why I singled you five out?”

The group glances around. Akko hasn’t spoken to either of the two boys in the group, and the third girl she doesn’t recognize is a Hufflepuff.

Professor Croix clears her throat. 

“All of you are new to the wizarding world. Muggle born, or status unknown.”

Status unknown? Akko thinks...what on earth did that mean?

“What I said, about there being more to defense than magic, you five will need to heed that lesson more than others in the school. There is much about the magical world you don’t know. Tradition dictates that most of this would be covered in History of Magic. But as this is recent history- barely five years, I felt it prudent to get you up to speed before you start hearing things second hand.”

She sounds serious. More serious than she had all lesson. 

“Nearly twenty years ago a wizard came to power who wished to obtain immortality and conquer the world. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. Many witches and wizards still fear his name. He had followers, people loyal to him, many of whom still follow what he believed to this day. “

She takes a deep breath. 

“Though he disappeared for more than ten years, five years ago he returned and tried to regain his power. The wizarding world was...torn apart. Devastated. Many people died, many places were destroyed. You would be hard pressed to find someone untouched the damage he caused. Even the Hogwarts campus is still rebuilding. We’re doing our best to continue. And while I am telling you this both so you can understand the nature of why some in this school may still react in unexpected ways, there is something else as well. 

The main tenant of the beliefs of Lord Voldemort’s followers….”

Akko feels her stomach jolt. Even Croix herself had avoided using the name until now, and it feels...powerful. 

“They were staunch in their belief in the superiority of magical blood. You may have already discovered that some of your classmates are from very old magical families. They called themselves pureblood, and believed that only they were worthy of magic. To be blunt, they would have despised you. 

I am telling you this, because it is likely that you will still encounter people who believe as though this is true. They will still treat you as though you are second class. They may call you “mudblood”, a truly foul name. And I am here to tell you, that you must move past this, and you may have to fight, far more than your peers may have to. You can’t let these people define you.”

It’s a heady thought to end the school day on. Akko still carries it when she joins the others for dinner. She notices that the tapestry hanging in the Great Hall looks singed on the edges. Much like the first night, Akko is so consumed she barely has the presence to stuff her face.

She finds herself looking around the castle more. And looking at her classmates more. She’s never really paid any mind to the older students, much less the professors. What Croix told them...so many of her classmates must have suffered tragedies. But what about the other part? The ones who would think little of her...she suddenly has a flashback to Diana shaking her head at her….and it’s not like she had done much to prove them wrong yet. 

When they’re getting ready for bed, and Akko’s looking at the glass in the windows (it looks like it’s been replaced, its not nearly as old as the windowframe), Amanda spares a glance towards Sucy’s bed and asks.   
“I meant to ask earlier, what did Croix want with the five of you earli

Akko tries to keep her tone light. 

“She wanted to give us a quick rundown about Lord Voldemort and what people might hate us because we’re muggle born”. 

Amanda flinches when she says the name, and looks at Akko like she wants to shush her. Akko glances to see if they’re going to have any more input in their conversation, but Sucy’s out like a light already.

“Yeah,” she says, tone downcast, not sounding a bit like her normal self.

“I’ve been looking at the castle all afternoon. You can kind of see where things were repaired.”

“The whole Great Hall was flattened.” Amanda says, “They rebuilt it first from scratch. Hagrid had to rebuild his hut. The quidditch pitch is all new, they even moved it a little.”

“She said a lot of people died too.” 

“One of my sisters was one of them.”

Akko’s head shoots up in shock. Amanda reaches into her nightstand and pulls out a photograph of a smiling teenager with familiar ginger braids on a broomstick. 

“Her name was Ashley, she was fourteen. We’re still not quite sure what happened, but she died in the Battle of Hogwarts after staying here that entire hellish year. My parents are still upset they didn’t make her stay home with us in Galway.”

Amanda looks upset, but also angry. 

Akko is quiet. There’s so much in that...Croix gave them some background but there’s still so much about the situation she doesn’t know. 

“She…” Akko tries to start off gently, but that’s really not in her nature. “She didn’t really tell us a lot of details. Could...you tell me a little more? You said there was a lot going on that whole year, and that there was a battle. Can you start there.”

Amanda looks at her. She’s not crying, but she still looks a bit upset. There’s a glint in her eye though, and it gives Akko the feeling of once again being out of the loop. 

“It’s strange for me to remember that you’ve never even heard of Harry Potter.”


	3. Chapter 3

October comes. 

Akko’s head really ought be filled with thoughts of bigotry, class and fear. Or maybe the story of chosen ones, prophecy and friendship that Amanda had told her. Or at least be preoccupied with her own seeming incompetence. 

But let it never be said that Akko Kagari couldn’t carry on. 

With October comes the lesson Akko and most of the other first years had been looking forward to most- flying lessons. Over the summer Akko had become so enamored with the idea of flying on a broomstick like a witch in the movies that in her trunk was tucked a number of drawings she had done of herself soaring over London, Paris, the Atlantic, and when the first lesson came, she was fidgety and ecstatic. 

The sky is clear, though it is becoming colder day by day. The line of first years, all houses this time, stand on the field, wearing their cloaks, each to the left side of a broomstick. School issued of course, Amanda having repeatedly bristled at the rule that first years could not bring their own. 

Akko is sandwiched between Lotte on her left and Amanda on her right. 

Madam Hooch introduces herself. Akko remembers her from Diagon Alley, obviously, but on the pitch in her flying goggles, she appears to be in her element. 

She gives them an introduction, that Akko, of course, can barely remember. 

“And we’ll begin with the summoning. Extend your right hand, palm down, over the broom to your right, and say, with intent ‘UP’”.

Akko confidently sticks out her arm, and borderline yells, “UP!”. 

The piece of wood and straw doesn’t move. 

“UP!” she tries again. 

Amanda’s broom had jumped swiftly into her hand. Lotte’s had glided up to hers smoothly. 

“You’ve got to focus,” Hooch continues, not to anyone in particular, but Akko still feels her face burning. “Visualize the movement and the broom will follow.”

Akko takes a deep breath, closes her eyes briefly, and tries again. 

“UP!”

And finally, the broom trailed it’s way up to Akko’s hand, handle first and bristles dragging. She hears a snicker from down the row. A glance gives her the suspicion that it was either Hannah or Barbara. Despite being in Slytherin and Ravenclaw respectively, they always seemed to be together, and somehow always where Akko was when she embarrassed herself. 

Hooch instructs the class on how to mouth and fit their grip properly. Suddenly self conscious, Akko feels her palms sweat and calves tremble. Whatever, she WOULD do this. 

“Now kick off firmly from the ground and rise a few feat in the air.”

Akko kicks a little softly because her legs are wobbly, but to her relief, feels herself begin to rise. Unfortunately, it’s only a few inches from the ground. She squeezes her eyes and her hands tight and tries to will herself to go higher. It seems to work a little. 

“Ok, now lean forward slightly, and-” Hooch is cut off by Amanda taking off into the air above the ground with a whoosh, nearly blowing Akko off onto the ground. 

“Amanda O’Neill, you come back here and quit showing off!”

Amanda waves. Then she does come back and join the class. 

“And a fair warning that horseplay is not allowed here if you ever wish to fly during your time at Hogwarts! Now to land properly, lean forward slightly and return to the ground”.

And once again Akko’s overzealous attitude gets her into the thick of it. She leans too far forward and topples off her broom head over heels. She hits the ground with a hard thwack. 

“Oww…” Akko manages to sit herself up and notices the others staring. 

“Is it...supposed to do that?” She hears someone ask, pointing. Akko trains her eyes, and realizes that when she fell from it, her broom stayed aflight, and has taken off on it’s own. 

She manages to mumble something and feels someone finally grabs her by the arm and pulls her up. It’s Lotte. 

“Come on, let’s get you to the hospital wing. I think they’re going to be busy for a while”, she adds, gesturing to where Hooch is attempting to get the broom under control. 

Akko groans as they re-enter the castle, as much from humiliation as from the pain in the back of her head. 

“Is it like, for sure that I’m a witch? There’s no way this was all a mistake and they’ll just send me home one day?”

“Lots of people fall off brooms Akko,” Lotte assures her kindly. “

“It’s not just the broom. My potions explode, I can’t transfigure anything. The only way I got that feather to float in Charms was by blowing on it!”

Lotte stops to look at her. 

“Akko, not everyone can be good at everything, especially not all at once. You know the first time I turned a strand of hair into a needle, I proceeded to stab myself in the thumb with it? You can’t just expect to enter school and suddenly be Merlin”. 

Akko sighs. 

“It’s just that I get a letter that says I get to go to magic school, and it’s like something out of a movie. Then I come here, and there’s all these great stories about defeating evil and overcoming prejudice and here I am just a dunce”. 

“You should go to the library, find some of the books written in the last five years.”

“Why?”

“Because every great story starts somewhere. People aren’t just born heroes. Harry Potter didn’t have a reputation as a great story. Neville Longbottom was much like you, the so called “school dunce”. All those kids who fought and died here, were just that, kids.” 

Lotte’s face looks vaguely ashen. Akko suddenly feels like she might have stepped out of line. 

“...Do you remember anything from then?”

Lotte shrugs. “I was six that year. My parents shop sells and repairs magical tools. We stayed open the whole year, did our best not to step on any toes even though selling to Death Eaters killed my parents inside. I was never allowed out. Mum and Dad used ot let me help out all the time, now I had to stay in my room or in the basement.”

They’ve reached the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey makes an exasperated noise when she sees it’s Akko again. 

“What was it this time, Miss Kagari?”

“Heheh, fell off my broomstick Madam.”

She continues tut-tutting about hwo Quidditch caused her more grief than anything else in the school while preparing the potion that makes Akko’s ears stop ringing and eases the burn from the scraps to the back of her head.  
Then they leave to return to the Great Hall for dinner, Akko notices Lotte glancing at the newer portraits on the walls, the ones Akko had noticed their first night. 

“These are all the students who died in the battle. They evacuated all the younger ones. That’s what I remember most clearly from that night. Seeing the crowds of kids escaping through the streets and the fire in the sky in the background.”

The way Lotte tells it, it DOES seem like such a good story, and so over the next coming weeks, Akko begins to take her advice. 

The Hogwarts library is nice enough, even watched over by Madam Pince, who’s entire demeanor suggests that Akko’s very existence is an affront to her sensibilities. The books Lotte mentioned- and true, there are a LOT of them- are primarily on a half height shelf near the entrance. Before Halloween comes, she’s already finished both an overview of the Battle of Hogwarts and one muggle-born’s account of her year in hiding. 

There’s never very many people but her in the library. Diana is, of course, a fixture, but seems content to not acknowledge Akko at all. And more than a few times, she’s encountered a blonde haired Slytherin named Annabel Creme. However, each time she’s been hunched over writing furiously and fully ignoring Akko’s existence. 

Which was more than Akko could say for the rest of her classmates. She could handle the laughter when she actually did something wrong, but the whispers behind her back are the worst, especially if they involve calling her “Akko the idiot”. But she couldn’t really complain, she didn’t have the worst of it. 

Akko was the blunt type. It was very true that Sucy creeped her out. She disliked being asked if she wanted to test her latest potion creations (though Slughorn had taken a shine to her inventiveness), and very much disliked the home made mushroom farm she kept under her bed in the dorms. But when she passed a group of second years and heard the words, “I’m glad I came last year. Hate to be in the same dorm as Akko the idiot and Sucy the creep”, her blood started to boil. 

Though, she could admit that it didn’t seem to bother Sucy much. Not the rumors about where she really came from, or the tacks in her Herbology gloves, or her books “mysteriously” plunging to the floor during class. 

The closest thing she’s seen get a reaction from her came the morning of Halloween. 

Akko had been pulling on her socks when she heard Sucy cry out. 

“What’s wrong?” she jumps and asks. Amanda’s still lying in bed, and even she turns on her side to see what’s going on. 

Sucy’s holding up the box she keeps her mushroom farm in. It’s about the side of a dresser drawer, and and of yesterday when she shoved it under Akko’s nose during dinner, contained fungi of all sizes and colors. 

Today it just contains a rust colored sludge where the plants had been before. 

“I took it down to the greenhouse yesterday to ask Professor Sprout a question. Someone must have doused it with something when I wasn’t looking”. 

“I’m sorry Sucy” Akko says. She’s being honest. As weird as Sucy is, she doesn’t deserve to have her stuff wrecked by her classmates. 

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll just have to transplant some of the other specimens I have hidden around the castle.”

That definitely sends a shiver down Akko’s spine. 

Halloween goes about like a regular day. There’s class (Akko doesn’t manage anything, but nothing explodes), lunch, more classes, and then Akko decides to spend some time in the library. She’s just about finished up a borderline frightening account of the year under Voldemort’s rule when she notices Sucy enter the library holding a box. 

“Hey-” she tries to get get Sucy’s attention, but she ignores her. 

When she finishes up, any thoughts of Sucy are erased when she sees how the Great Hall has been transformed for the feast. Bats and pumpkins and all sorts of treats. Halloween had been Akko’s favorite holiday in the muggle world, and it looked like it was going to stay that way. 

She’s sitting and munching on a licorice wand and watching the ghosts set up for their performance. She heard the Grey Lady say something in the hallway about harmonizing, so it seems like it will be music this year. 

It’s when another ghost pulls out it’s musical saw, that Akko realizes Sucy isn’t at the table. She cranes her head to get a good look at the other tables, thinking maybe she didn’t want to sit with them. No sign of her. 

She nudges Amanda, “Did you see Sucy come to the feast tonight.”

Amanda shakes her head. “I haven’t seen her since Transfiguration.”

“I wonder where she is.”

The words have scarcely left her mouth when Slughorn enters and whispers something to Headmistress McGonagall at the staff table. She stands. 

“Students, please return to your common rooms immediately. There is an incident in the dungeons which require our attention.” She turns to the ghosts, “I apologize that we must preempt your performance.”

As the disappointed students begin to fill the hallway, Akko wracks her brain. When she spots Diana about to turn down the corridor towards the Ravenclaw common room, she reaches out and grabs her by the arm. 

Diana jumps, then says with a rough edge to her voice, 

“Is there something you need, Akko?”

“You were in the library after me, did you see Sucy leave?”

Diana looks surprised, and thoughtful. 

“No, I can’t say I did...is she not here?”

Akko shakes her head, heart racing. It’s then that she realizes she can hear hear what almost sounds like a low roar coming from the entrances to the dungeons where the teachers are in a line to find out what’s going on. 

“We have to get back to our common rooms.” Diana insists, pulling away. 

“I’m going back. If she decided to skip the feast and is still in the library, she doesn’t know what’s going on. She could be in danger.”

And with that she turns away from Diana and trots back down the hallway towards the library. With every step, Akko feels her stomach sink lower in her gut. There’s something that tells her she might be in over her head.


End file.
